Rean and Roan had no idea as to what the elders were thinking. First of all, it was a wonder whether they would accept to take part in this kind of event or not.
Continuing on Rean's side, the Guild's Formation Masters brought out the Spiritual Blast Formation that Elder Turin asked for. This wasn't anything hard to make since it simply compressed Spiritual Energy before releasing it. In fact, it was quite lacking when one compared it to other formations that rely on elements.
However, this was perfect for this situation. The Spiritual Blast Formation didn't select any element in particular. It only absorbed the Spiritual Energy available and released the attack. The Formations Guild also planned to use Spirit Stones to power it up so that they could do their tests.
"Alright. First, the fire field."
Lanca and a few other Formation Masters of the previous exam were there. They quickly left the field so that their Formations could be tested. The assistants then approached the Spiritual Blast Formation to one of the fire-based defensive formations before activating it.
The Spiritual Blast Formation then absorbed one Rank Three Spirit Stone until it turned to dust before releasing its energy.
Just as the fire-based defensive formation was about to be hit, Fire Element began to gather around it, creating a magma-like force field. The Spiritual Blast hit it head-on, deforming a bit of the magma field. However, that was about it. The formation held the attack back without much difficulty.
The formation's owner, who was watching from outside, nodded in satisfaction.
"My Magma Force Field Formation is malleable. This is not going to be broken that easily. Hahaha!"
However, the next Spiritual Blast Attack came right after he finished. This time, the Spiritual Blast Formation used three Rank Three Spirit Stones to charge up.
*Boom!*
With three times the power, the Magma Field was left with an enormous hole on its surface. Although it didn't collapse, it was really close to it. The other participants then looked at the guy who just talked as if he was an idiot.
"How dumb are you? Even if that was only a Spiritual Blast Formation, it was made by the Formation Master Guild's elders. Did you think it would be just like any simple one you can build yourself?"
"Hmph! From the looks of it, you won't be able to hold even three strikes."
"He's not the only one. You all need to be prepared when your time comes."
During the next Spiritual Blast, five Rank Three Spirit Stones were used to charge the formation.
*Boom! Shatter!*
Sure enough, the guy's defensive formation wasn't able to hold it back and collapsed almost instantly. Seeing that, he couldn't help but show an ugly face.
Well, Turin and the rest couldn't care less about it.
"Surinan Fill, two strikes. The Spiritual Blast Formations seem to be working fine. Head to the next one."
The assistants followed the order and quickly moved the Spiritual Blast Formation to the next one in the queue. Once again, it absorbed a single Rank Three Spirit Stone before attacking the formation. The defense did hold it back, but things were not so good for the second time.
*Boom! Shatter!*
This one wasn't able to even hold two strikes. Surinan then sighed in relief after seeing that. At least, that proved that his Magma Field Formation wasn't the worst one.
"Talei Uifron, one strike. Next!"
The next five defensive formations were only able to hold one or two strikes in the end. Only the 6th one finally crossed that threshold.
*Boom, Boom, Boom!*
"He passed three strikes!"
"Finally, someone with some skills."
"Hehe! Do you think so? Look at how his formation is holding. It can barely stand."
"It was still better than the previous ones, though."
"Wait! Look at the Spiritual Blast Formation!"
Everyone heard that warning and looked at the formation. All of a sudden, most of their faces turned grim. The first blast used one Rank Three Spirit Stones, the second used three, the third used five... However, the fourth jumped straight to ten Spirit Stones!
*Boom! Shatter!*
The formation that withstood three strikes broke as if it was made of glass. Not even a single rune remained after that.
"Laol Volkiq, three strikes. Next!"
The confidence in quite a few faces disappeared after seeing that. They thought they would be able to hold four strikes at least, but the power of that Spiritual Blast was far above what they expected. Sure enough, the guild showed no mercy.
Of course, there were many even better formations present. A girl called Suia Rove finally broke the four strike threshold. The others who failed and those who weren't confident couldn't help but look at her, jealous.
Suia dropped her head in embarrassment with so many eyes on her. Nonetheless, she was very happy with that result, especially because her formation still seemed to be in good shape.
The next strike used the force of fifteen Rank Three Spirit Stones, but Suia's formation held the strike once again. Finally, her formation broke down at the sixth Spiritual Blast Strike, which used twenty Spirit Stones.
Turin then looked at the girl and nodded.
"Not too bad. Suia Rove, five strikes. Next!"
Immediately, everyone understood. If they wanted to guarantee their presence between the first three hundred participants, their formations needed to hold at least four strikes. Three might be possible, but they would most likely end in a draw with other participants. Once that happened, the results of their previous exam would be what really counts.
The tests continued without caring for their feelings, though. Soon, the first one hundred were tested. Between them, there were 18 who were able to hold three strikes, 5 got to four, while only 2 were able to defend against five strikes.
Suia wasn't part of those who performed well in the first exam, so she was a surprise to the others. However, the second one was part of the best ranked there. Orval Fole was third place in the 5th Test Field in the First Exam. He was also part of one of the nine subordinate clans.
Of course, the same way that unknown names appeared, some of the best-ranked ones in the first exam also fell short. Two of the guys in the top 5 in the first exam couldn't even hold three strikes and were definitely eliminated. No one found it unjust, though. After all, the ability to create a good formation was taken more seriously than analyzing them.
*Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom...*
Suddenly, one of the formations was able to hold seven strikes!
"Oh! It's Felo Susume. He was the first to come out of the restriction formations in the first exam in my kids' batch."
"Another Subordinate Clan, that's not too surprising."
"Still, seven strikes is already a good result. Depending on how Felo performs in the next phase, he might get one of the 10 slots."
With that, Felo immediately went to the top of the list.
*Boom, Boom, Boom...*
"Hey, It's Lanca! He held seven strikes as well!"
"H's not from any of the capital's power."
"That makes his result even better."
The Fire Field had a total of 337 participants. In the end, Lanca and Felo were the only ones to defend against seven strikes. They were also one of those who used double-layered formations to achieve their results. Just like before, there was another monitoring formation to show the results.
-1st: Lanca Mion, seven blasts-
-2nd: Felo Susume, seven blasts-
-3rd: Turuna Wavile, six blasts-
-4th...
As everyone verified the numbers, Turin continued with the exam.
"Next, Wind Field!"
There wasn't really a sequence to follow since all fields had participants inside. Still, Turin decided to leave Earth for last since it held half of them. As for the rest, he simply chose random ones, so right now was the Wind Field.
The Wind Field only lost to the Lightning Field in the number of participants, with a total of 276 participants. The Lightning Field had only 91, Rean included.
The tests in the Wind Field went smoothly. Soon, one more participant that reached seven strikes appeared, Suli Deskalo. Still, Suli was the only one to reach this number in the Wind Field. There were another five who defended six strikes and a lot more below this number.
"Next, Lightning Field!"
In the Lightning Field, there were only two participants who held good positions in the previous exam. One of them was called Dinki Sasamil, a member of the Sasamil Imperial Family. The other one, obviously, was Rean himself.
Dinki was the 34th one to be tested in that field, which only saw a single participant achieving four strikes so far.
*Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!*
Finally, on the ninth blast, 80 Rank Three Spirit Stones were used, and Dinki's Lightning Formation finally collapsed.
However, Dinki couldn't care less. That's because he beat everyone's record by holding eight strikes!
"Oh! He did that with a Lightning Type Formation."
"All types of formations can achieve good results as long as you know how to make them. It's just that Lightning ones are usually too consuming. Still, Dinki worked around with his own double-layered formation without losing much power. That was very good."
"Well, that's the Sasamil Imperial Family for you."
While everyone talked about Dinkil, the tests finally reached Rean's Lightning Formation.
Droman was quite nervous since he saw how Rean constructed his own. It's just that only Rean knew what it was supposed to do.
"I hope it will work. Please, hold at least four strikes."
However, Droman wasn't very confident about it since Rean's runes were not very resistant.
Well, the other elders who observed Rean's work also thought the same thing.
"Seems like the black horse might fall here."
"Well, the way he passed the first phase was quite weird to start with. A few people didn't like it."
However, no one noticed the peculiar expression on Saya's eyes.
"That boy, could he..."
The only other people thinking highly of Rean was Havek, which was kind of a surprise for this kind of person, and obviously, Qia, who held Rean's hand as soon as she returned.
"Hahaha! Rean, did you prepare another surprise for me?"
All the participants left the elemental field test areas. Now, they were together while they looked at the test go on. Rean smiled as he looked at the test field.
"Just look."
Havek's eyes shone as he paid close attention to the testing field.
The Spiritual Blast Formation was then brought beside Rean's one and charged the first strike with one Rank Three Spirit Stones. Soon after, it released the energy.
Rean's double-layered formation activated as it absorbed the Spiritual Energy and Lightning Element like torrents!
Seeing that, Droman paled.
"Not good. The runes won't hold that much Spiritual Energy and Lightning Element. Rean, what have you done?!"
However, something incredible happened right after. The Lightning Formation released a powerful one time only attack. The Spiritual Gathering Formation in Rean's Double-Layered Formation absorbed the power of that attack. It then gathered together with the previously already absorbed Spiritual Energy of the environment. Finally, it followed the Spiritual Blast Formation's attack back to its source!
*Zap! Boom!*
Immediately, the Spiritual Blast Formation got blasted away instead! As for Rean's formation, most of the runes inside broke apart, but the formation itself barely hold itself in place. If it got a single extra attack, it would definitely collapse. Unfortunately for others, no more attacks would come.
Suddenly, Rean began to laugh out loud.
"Hahaha! What's the best way to defend against an attack? That's to prevent the attack from ever coming again! Sorry, everyone, but I have the best defense ever!"
All the examinators' mouths twitched at the same time. However, Rean's words were not wrong. If your defense formation could prevent any more attacks from coming, then that was definitely a much better formation. In the end, they didn't know what to do.
"Is it... valid again?"
Saya, the guild leader who was watching from behind, couldn't help but giggle a little.
"I like that boy."
